Consequent upon the continuing insurgency in the northern part of Nigeria, coupled with the “internecine crises raging across the land”, former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida have intensified efforts to mobilize other former heads of state.

Northern interest groups and leaders, yesterday, flayed Ijaw national leader, Chief Edwin Clark’s assertion of the culpability of Northern leaders in the Boko Haram insurgency, describing his claim as extreme ethnic jingoism.

Elder statesman and prominent Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, yesterday, declared that some highly placed individuals from the Northern part of the country were behind the increasing spate of violence in Nigeria to actualize their vow of “making the nation ungovernable for President Jonathan.”

THE face-off between the House of Representatives and President Goodluck Jonathan over the poor implementation of the 2012 budget rolled over to the Senate, yesterday, leading to a walk-out of a high powered delegation of the Presidency from the Senate building.

Gunmen, yesterday, attacked a house under construction belonging to the Vice President, Namadi Sambo in Tudun Wada area of Zaria, Kaduna State. This came as two suicide bombers also, yesterday, attacked two police formations in Sokoto, killing a policeman and a woman, while the two bombers also died in the process.

Former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida have made a joint appeal for peace in the land, saying that the daily loss of innocent lives in the country was an unbearable burden that could inevitably shatter the fabrics of the nation’s existence.

Some insight into how new states will be created was given yesterday when the Deputy President of the Senate and Chairman of the upper chambre’s Constitutional Review Committees, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, said it would be by consensus.

The law bared its fangs, yesterday, as the Ikeja and Lagos judicial divisions will try 7 oil companies and 12 directors charged before them. They face between 7 years and 20 years imprisonment and to refund N304bn which was alleged to have been illegally taken from the Federal Government coffers.

Tragedy struck in Jos, Plateau State capital, Sunday night, when a rampaging flood swallowed over 35 people and also destroyed more than 200 houses. A 90-year-old woman and a three-month-old baby were among the victims while more than 15 people have also been declared missing.

The intervention of the President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, notwithstanding, the House of Representatives will commence impeachment proceedings against President Goodluck Jonathan this September in the event he continues to err in the implementation of the 2012 budget.